OTTAWA — In the lead-up to last year’s federal election, Defence Department officials intentionally dodged repeated requests from Parliament’s budgetary watchdog to sit down and discuss the true cost of the F-35 stealth fighter program.

Newly released internal emails show that’s because they were awaiting approval from the top echelons of government to meet with Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page and his staff — approval that never materialized.

Then once an explosive report from the PBO was released, estimating the jets to be twice as expensive as the government’s claim, defence officials worked overtime to undermine its credibility.

The revelations raise new questions over why senior bureaucrats — or the Harper government — stonewalled and attacked the PBO in the weeks before an election during which the F-35 figured prominently.

They also emerge as Page finds himself in a new fight with National Defence and other departments over their refusal to explain what programs and services will be cut as the federal government moves to slash billions in spending.

In October 2010, the House of Commons finance committee tasked the PBO with providing an independent cost estimate of the Harper government’s plan to purchase 65 F-35s, which National Defence pegged at $16 billion over 20 years.

Defence officials provided some documents to the PBO’s main researcher, Peter Weltman, that December, and promised to co-operate with Weltman as he prepared his final report.

On Jan. 31, 2011, Weltman called the air force’s director of air requirements, Col. Randy Meiklejohn, with some further questions and requested a meeting to get a handle on how National Defence came up with its $16-billion figure for the F-35s.

“He has asked to meet with both of us sometime this week or next pending your availability with a view to discussing the cost breakdown and any lingering (technical) issues he might have,” Meiklejohn wrote to Col. Dave Burt, the officer in charge of the F-35 program.

Meiklejohn went on to note in the email that “we are committed to mtg (meeting) with the PBO,” but that the two air force officers would have to get authorization “from higher” first.

Like Meiklejohn, Burt appeared inclined to have the meeting, as did others further up the chain of command.

But the request stalled on Feb. 3, 2011, when the department’s civilian head, deputy minister Robert Fonberg, wrote: “I’d like advice from PCO on how to handle.”

The Privy Council Office is the federal government’s most central department, with responsibility for supporting Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his cabinet.

It’s not clear if Fonberg’s request for advice stayed at the bureaucratic level or was referred further to the prime minister and cabinet, but a week later Fonberg still hadn’t responded despite more requests from Weltman.

“Please note that Mr. Weltman continues to contact (Meiklejohn) for information and, while Mr. Weltman remains patient, he explained to (Meiklejohn) that, with or without interaction with DND, he is completing a cost analysis in the next week or so,” Burt wrote to his boss, Andre Fillion, on Feb. 10, 2011.

“I spoke twice with Mr. Peter Weltman, mostly to continue to delay a request to meet with him as we awaited DM (Fonberg’s) approval,” Meiklejohn wrote on Feb. 17, 2011.

“During our last conversation, he made me aware that they were releasing their report and was hoping to get better cost definition through a mtg (meeting) with us.”

Fillion replied: “We have not obtained clearance to talk to them yet and standing by.”

That same day, another defence official sent an email saying that Defence Minister Peter MacKay’s office “has requested that we inform them of exactly what the PBO has received from DND in relation to their (F-35) study.”

The PBO’s report on the F-35 was released March 10, 2011, and sparked an instant furor. It estimated the F-35s would cost $29.3 billion over 30 years, and not the $16 billion over 20 years claimed by the government.

The emails show defence officials, aware that a federal election was looming, immediately set about trying to undermine the report, calling upon resources and personnel from across the department.

A military attache at the Canadian High Commission in London was even enlisted to get a professor at Cranfield University in Britain to critique the PBO’s study, paying him nearly $6,000 for a few days work.

Meanwhile, the department’s public affairs and military procurement sections worked overtime organizing a technical briefing and writing an “F-35 Costing Narrative” in an attempt to counter the PBO’s findings.

“We have spent the last days (including Sat and Sun) in the office reviewing the report, compiling evidence to refute the report, and contributing to various products through (MacKay’s) office, through PCO to the Prime Minister’s Office,” Lt.-Col. Gordon Zans wrote on March 15, 2011.

The preparations included drawing up a list of potential questions that might be posed to the defence officials as a result of the report.

One reads: “Why didn’t the Department meet with the PBO months ago when originally invited/requested to? Wouldn’t this have lead to a better understanding of your estimates to the PBO?”

The draft document dated March 12, 2011, does not provide an answer to the question.

When this question was posed during a technical briefing on March 17, 2011, Dan Ross, the head of military procurement, replied: “I’m not aware of whether they ever requested a face-to-face meeting with us.

“After the report was issued,” he added, “we in fact on Monday contacted them and we’ve had several phone calls since to try to offer to sit down with them and have a discussion on methodologies and assumptions.”

Ross, a former general who has overseen the department’s much-criticized military procurement system since 2005, has announced he will be retiring on Jan. 2.

The Harper government was ultimately found in contempt of Parliament two weeks after the PBO’s F-35 report was released, in part because the Conservatives refused to provide more information about the stealth fighter program.

Auditor General Michael Ferguson found this past April that the full cost of the jets will be closer to $25 billion. He also identified many of the same problems the PBO did.

The Harper government has since backed away from plans to purchase the F-35, saying that it is reviewing the program and considering other options.

This month, the PBO asked the Federal Court to decide whether he has the authority to demand federal departments explain how they plan to cut their spending as the Conservative government works to shave billions off the deficit.

The government claims the request for information oversteps the PBO’s mandate.